Surprising Lions make tournaments

St. John Paul II might be a small school, but when it comes to sports it has a bunch of overachievers who don’t let that bother them.

This winter all three teams, hockey and boys’ and girls’ basketball had surprising seasons and qualified for the MIAA Division 4 tournaments.

The boys’ basketball team was short in experience with just two returning players with varsity experience.

“We did better than I thought we’d do,” said coach Dave Harrison. “We got better as the year went on. We got a little more experience and came along.”

St. John Paul II earned the seventh seed with an 11-4 record (11-8 overall without the exclusion games), and will play 10th-seeded Nantucket (12-8) Thursday at St. Francis Xavier in Hyannis

“They beat us by 10 the first two times we played them. Then we beat them the last time by 10. I think it's going to be a pretty good game,” said Harrison.

Junior Devan Harrison and senior Ryan Bradley were the two players who played varsity last year.

Harrison at point guard leads the offense, can score, and is a solid defensive player.

Bradley, a three-year varsity player, is the team’s captain and leader. Like Harrison, he is a pretty good shooter and a solid defensive player.

The big surprise has been the play of senior Nate Whiteley, who emerged as the team’s center.

“He had a great season; he played well for us,” said Harrison.

Jack Manning was also a player who improved as the season progressed, and P.J. Lawson, a junior varsity player last year, stepped up to contribute.

The hockey team, with only two seniors and three juniors from last year’s team, rallied in the second half of the season. But the Lions fell to Cardinal Spellman Monday night, 3-2 in overtime after leading with just under 3 minutes remaining in the game. Will Delman and Jack Richards scored for the Lions, who finished the season 10-9-1.

At one point the Lions were 3-5 and at another 5-7, and two weeks ago they needed to win two of their last four games to make the tournament -- they won three.

“Our backs were to the wall. I give our kids a lot of credit. The kids kept battling and we ended up two games over (.500),” said coach Chuck Jancaterino.

Senior Gil Bach has been terrific all season at goalie and is a fierce competitor and team leader. He made 23 saves in the tourney loss.

Center John Walden, the other senior on the team was third in scoring behind Richards and Cory Weeks, both juniors.

Delman, a sophomore, came around in the second part of the season and played a big part in the win over Mashpee in the final game. The defense was led by Billy Dwyer and Curtis Weber.

The girls’ basketball team lost its two big inside players to graduation.

“We lost 12 ½ feet of basketball players,” said coach Mike Tierney. “We lost our height and we had to respond to that.

The Lions, relying on speed and tough defense, ended the season with a 9-6 record to qualify for the tournament and get the Number 12 seed.

But they played some very good teams this year, including Marshfield, Duxbury, and Nauset and Bishop Stang (twice each as exclusionary games).

So Tierney felt his team was ready to take on fifth-seeded Greater New Bedford Voke (14-6) in Wednesday's first-round game, played after The Register deadline.

“Some teams are better and have more talent than we do,but nobody outworks us,” said Tierney.

St. John Paul II is led by seniors Jess Tierney at point guard and Olivia Bengston, a guard converted to forward, and junior captain Katie Wojciechowski.

Together they give the Lions a strong offensive attack with Tierney, the playmaker, penetrating and dishing off to Bengston, who became the team’s go-to scorer.

Wojciechowski leads the defense and can also be a scoring threat at times.

Sophomores Emily Bengston and Victoria Butler and freshman Melissa Vancott have all played well.

Bengston is a good outside shooter and defensive player; Butler is very athletic and fast and has good all-around basketball skills.

Vancott, at 5 feet, 10 inches, had to step in to play center and be the team’s “big man” inside. She has become a good rebounder and can score some points as well.

And freshmen Cait Mehl and Brooke Whitten have gotten in some good playing time this season.